So…I really could have done without the orientation in Ciudad Real yesterday (Monday). It was every bit as boring, perhaps even more so, as I was anticipating. We arrived in CR about 9:30 and had an hour to kill so what did we do? We   went for a coffee in the cafeteria, of course! We headed for the auditorium about 10:00 and people were starting to trickle in. We met several people from nearby towns (when I say nearby, I mean about 20-45 minutes away): Tomelloso, Alcazar de San Juan, Campo de Criptana. Hopefully, we can all get together sometime, since we’re all kind of out in the middle of nowhere.

At 10:30, the presenters were still messing with the computer, so we didn’t start exactly on time, but shortly after that we did. I have no words to describe how boring it was; it was all in Spanish, they talked super fast and about education laws and edicts and the Spanish education system in general. I would expect to learn about those things if I were getting a degree in education here, but as a non native speaking assistant, it was WAY too much. Even Rocío and José, our school directors, said it was excruciatingly boring. I was also annoyed that we didn’t have any time to go apply for our NIEs (Número de Identidad de Extranjero aka Alien Resident Card). CR is our nearest office, so I figured they would allow us time to go apply, but no, we were booked the entire day. So now, we get to take the bus/train on our own sometime soon to go back and do that. Come on now, is the killing-two-birds-with-one-stone philosophy altogether dead?

There were, however, two bright spots in the otherwise dull day: 1) I found out there is another American guy coming to Socu! No one is sure when he’s coming because he has encountered problems with the visa process (and before you ask, Dad, exactly what the problem is, I don’t know!) 2) In honor of Columbus/Spain Day, we don’t have school this Friday-Tuesday. We’re hoping to take a trip somewhere, we just aren’t sure yet. At the end of the day, they gave us all a goodie bag (yay!) of info on CR—a map, tapas bars, etc… We got back home a little before seven and I went to bed rather early (about 11, which is considered early here).

I did not start off the day well today—I awoke eight minutes late. A lot of people, I know, are like “Wow!, it’s eight minutes, get over it!” But, to me, eight minutes is a long time and I found myself rushing around this morning, in an effort to make up those precious lost moments; I wasn’t a happy camper.

I arrived at school (with all the children and their parents) at nine o’clock on the dot. I dropped my bag off in the office, near Aurora’s desk and headed for María José’s 5^th grade class. They were just starting science hour (which was supposed to be half in Spanish and half in English, but turned into a whole hour of reviewing in Spanish), so I sat there and listened to the class review the parts of a cell in Spanish. It wasn’t too bad…I guess, it would have been more interesting, though, if I knew anything about science.

At 10:00, I went to Esperanza’s first grade room and observed two very long hours of chaos. It was actually two classes, one each hour. I introduced myself (in Spanish, because she thought it would be easier for them) and the second class laughed at me because I don’t speak with a lisp. I stood there and thought to myself “Wait a minute—shouldn’t it be the other way around? But, then again, I’m not at home, I guess”. When kids are that young, it’s hard to teach them about anything, much less another language. They’re not good listeners: they were up and jumping around the class, hitting each other with their water bottles and having pencil sword fights. In the very short time some of the students were paying attention, Esperanza reviewed some school vocab with them: book, pencil, pencil case, sharpener, crayon and rubber (which I learned is UK English for eraser). She tried to play a song that incorporated the vocab, but it didn’t take too well.

We had recess/lunch from 11:50-12:20 and today many of the teachers were in the lounge drinking coffee, so I joined them. I was going to buy a bocadillo/sandwich for 50 cents (I guess on Tuesdays some of the moms host it as a fundraiser), but by the time I got there, they were out of meat and were making like these peanut butter-like chocolate sandwiches, which I did not want, so I didn’t eat anything at school today.

From 12:20-2:00, I was in Rocío’s two 4^th grade classes. She’s very hardcore—which I appreciate to a certain extent. She doesn’t take any crap and if a student steps out of line, she’s on them like no other! I had met some of the kids last week but not all of them, so we did more introductions. She had each of them stand up and say “Hello, my name is _____. Nice to meet you.” Hers is the only class I’ve helped with teaching in. They’re reviewing letters and numbers, so I was able to lead the exercises. I would say a number and they would repeat it and write in out in English and then spell it back out loud. I felt a little bad for the kids because if they forgot how to say a letter or number or hesitated when she called on them, Rocío would get rather impatient and short with them like “This is really easy stuff, maybe you should have studied more!” If they got it wrong, I tried to be empathetic (learning a language is really hard, especially as a child!) and be like “That’s close, but not quite!” and she would flat out be like “No, that’s wrong (grrr!)” and dismiss them. Even when they introduced themselves, she was all over them. My thinking is at least they’re trying—they know more than our nine-year-olds, at least.

At 2:00, the day was over and I stopped at the store (MERCADONA, not DÍA!) before going home. I got back a little before three and was going to go to the bank to pick up my debit/young person card, but Gunita said they’re only open in the mornings, until two. Which, if that’s true, I’ll like never be able to go…SWEET! (That’s not true actually, I could go on a Friday since I don’t work…I just felt like being dramatic!)

Xoxo,

Court